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LaQuAT: Linking and Querying Ancient Texts

LaQuAT was a collaboration between the Centre for e-Research Kings College, London and EPCC, The University of Edinburgh and the project was funded by JISC via the ENGAGE project.

The project focused on linking epigraphic databases using the OGSA-DAI data management product, which is designed for access to and usage of distributed heterogeneous data bases and includes powerful support for distributed query processing. Epigraphy is the study of ancient texts eg books, papyri, or inscriptions on stone tablets. Information about these texts are gathered and stored in databases. This information includes what the artifact is, where it was found, where it originates from, when it is thought to date from, what the inscription says, and myriad other information. The data may be in relational, XML, plain-text or other non-standard formats. Different researchers may use their own formats. As there are numerous researchers in the field, the data is distributed globally.

EPCC customised OGSA-DAI to run queries over distributed epigraphic databases as if they were a single virtual database. We also demonstrated how OGSA-DAI allows researchers to augment third-party read-only databases with their own data sets. The project highlighted the strengths of OGSA-DAI’s ability to handle real-life data.